Kawasaki may be the name of a motor-cycle but it is also the name of a less well-known disease.
Dr Tomisaku Kawasaki, of the Tokyo Red Cross Medical Centre, reported the first cases in 1967; more than 20,000 cases have been reported in Japan and many more in other countries, including Australia.
The cause is unknown but it results in a feverish illness with enlargement of the lymph glands and a rash, ulcers or blisters in the mouth or on the tongue.
The incidence is thought to be greater than what is reported as many mild cases may be missed.
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In recent years computers have been linked up to very sophisticated X-ray machines to produce a more detailed and quite different type of picture than those I have described above. The pictures which this system produces look like a cross-section of the part of the body under study. This means that they represent what you would see if you sliced the body right through at a particular level and looked at the cut surface. The usual type of X-ray is produced by a broad beam of X-rays passing through the entire part of the body to be checked. With the CT scanner, a very narrow beam of
X-rays passes backwards and forwards across the body in a thin strip. Instead of an X-ray plate on the other side there are special crystals which react very quickly to X-rays falling on them. Messages are constantly being fed into a computer telling it how many X-rays went in one side (from the X-ray source) and how many came out the other side (as indicated by the reaction of the crystals). By analysing these messages sent from every angle around the body, the computer builds up the cross-sectional picture. The process can be repeated at other levels in the body as neccessary. CT scan pictures give us much more detail than an ordinary X-ray. Contrast methods are often used in combination with the CT scanner to give the maximum possible information. The problem with CT scanners is that they are extremely expensive and need expert staff to ‘read’ the pictures. They also Involve the use of considerably more radiation than normal rays.
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